1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automated storage system, particularly, automated storage system includes article storage racks having a plurality of storage spaces for storing articles; a stacker crane having a travelling carriage which can travel along a travelling path established on the front side of the article storage racks, a platform which can freely move up and down along masts stood from the travelling carriage, and a transfer device equipped on the platform for freely transferring the articles between the platform and the storage spaces; and a controller provided on a ground side for controlling the operation of the stacker crane; wherein fire fighting nozzles, to which fire extinguishant is supplied from a fire extinguishant supply source from which the extinguishant is spread to the storage spaces, are provided on the platform of the stacker crane.
2. Related Art
A conventional automated storage system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Preliminarily Publication No. Hei9-221201. In the facility disclosed in this publication, article storage racks and a stacker crane are provided in a normal temperature environmental space, and a fire hydrant as a fire extinguishant supply source is also in the same normal temperature environmental space. Further, the controller on the ground side for controlling the operation of the stacker crane, as well as a control device for controlling the water, as a fire extinguishant, supply from the fire hydrant between a supply condition and a non-supply condition, are also provided in a normal temperature environmental space.
According to the facility disclosed in Japanese Patent Preliminarily Publication No. Hei9-221201, the fire fighting hose is wound around a hose reel on the stacker crane, one end of which is connected to the fire fighting nozzle on the platform and the other end of which is normally open without being connected. Once a fire breaks out, the stacker crane travels to a starting point on the travelling path to connect the fighting hose to the fire extinguishant supply source (fire hydrant) provided at the starting point, then the fighting hose is automatically connected to the fire extinguishant supply source. Since the fighting hose wound on the hose reel is let out or in, in accordance with the travelling operation of the stacker crane, the stacker crane can travel in an appropriate manner even if the fighting hose is connected between the ground side and the stacker crane (see paras. [0016], [0017], [0027] and [0028], and FIGS. 1 and 2 of the Publication).
In FIG. 1 of the Publication, it is mentioned that the controller on the ground side and the stacker crane communicate wirelessly. The controller on the ground side and the stacker crane communicate control signals required for controlling the operation of the stacker crane. When the stacker crane and the controller on the ground side transmit controlling signals wirelessly, a transmitting-receiving apparatus should be provided on each of the ground controller side and the stacker crane to wirelessly communicate to each other, as shown in FIG. 3. of the Japanese Patent Preliminarily Publication No. 2008-63032, to transmit the control signals required for controlling the operation of the stacker crane. The stacker crane should have a wireless communication processing apparatus for taking up control information from the signals received, and for converting the control signals to wireless communication signals and then sending them. It should be noted that an embodiment in the Japanese Patent Preliminarily Publication No. 2008-63032 disclosed that light projector-receiver is provided on each of the stacker crane and the ground controller side, respectively, to transfer control signals by means of infrared data communication (see FIG. 3 of the Japanese Patent Preliminarily Publication No. 2008-63032).
Depending on the use of the automated storage system facility, in some cases, articles should be stored in a high temperature environmental space, whose temperature is set higher than that of the normal temperature environmental space. In such case, carbon dioxide is used as an fire extinguishant and carbon dioxide cylinder is used as an extinguishuant supply, the carbon dioxide cylinder as a fire extinguishant supply source could be exploded, because it is exposed to such a high temperature environment. Even in a case that water is used as a fire extinguishuant, the water temperature becomes so high that the extinguish effect would be reduced. In a case of using some chemical agent as a fire extinguishant, the agent would be deteriorated so that the extinguish effect would also be decreased.
Furthermore, if the switching device (for instance, electro-magnetic valve, etc.) for switching the extinguishant supply source condition from the extinguishant supply source to the fire fighting hose between the supply condition and the non-supply condition is subjected to the high temperature environmental space, the operation of the switching device cannot be guaranteed due to the high temperature. Therefore, in case of a fire, it still remains possibilities that the condition could not be switched to the extinguishuant supply condition, so that an extinction could not be achieved.
When storing articles in a higher temperature environmental space, where the temperature is set to be higher than that of the normal temperature environmental space, the article storage racks or the stacker crane of the automated storage system facility would also be laid in a high temperature environmental space. Therefore, in the conventional automated storage system facility, where the control signals are transmitted between the ground controller side and the stacker crane by wireless transmission, the wireless signal processor on the stacker crane would be subjected to the higher temperature environment. Since such wireless signal processor includes semiconductor devices where sophisticated signal operation is performed, no proper operation would be guaranteed in such a higher temperature environmental space. Thus, proper control signal transmission could not be performed between the ground side controller and the stacker crane, so that the stacker crane could not properly operate in the high temperature environment space.
To address this problem, it is considered to connect the stacker crane and the ground controller side by means of wired control line so that the control signals can be transmitted in a normal manner between the ground controller side and the stacker crane provided in the higher temperature environmental space. However, as in the conventional system where the fire fighting nozzle is provided on the stacker crane while the fire extinguishant supply source is at the ground side and the fire fighting nozzle and the extinguishant supply source are connected by the fire fighting hose, both the signal control line and the fire fighting hose are connected between the ground side and the stacker crane, which makes the structure of the system so complex that the travelling of the stacker crane could not be performed appropriately.